Berlin - MENA Herald: Lufthansa deeply regrets that the pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) has called for its members to go on strike tomorrow, 23 November 2016, from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. The strike affects Lufthansa’s long- and short-haul flights departing from Germany. A total of 2,124 of approximately 3,000 daily flights of the Lufthansa Group will take place. 51 of the 876 cancelled flights are intercontinental flights; approximately 100.000 passengers are affected overall. Lufthansa apologizes to all its customers that are affected by this strike. A special flight schedule for the duration of the strike has been enabled on the LH.com website at noon today, allowing customers to verify whether their flight will be taking place as scheduled. Lufthansa is doing everything in its power to keep its customers informed and to rebook them to other airlines and other means of transportation wherever possible.
Lufthansa asks all its customers to check the status of their flight on LH.com before travelling to the airport. Lufthansa will also be notifying all passengers who have added their contact information to their customer profiles of potential flight cancellations by e-mail or SMS. Customers can also call our free hotline at 0800 850 60 70 for information (free from German landlines).
Customers whose flights have been cancelled due to the strike have the one-time option to transfer or cancel their booking. In addition to this, all passengers travelling with the Group airlines Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels Airlines will have the one-time option to transfer their booking for free, regardless of whether their flight has been cancelled or not. Passengers can find additional information on LH.com under ‘Current Travel Information’. For flights within Germany, there is also the option to exchange flight tickets for train-travel vouchers.
The company is doing everything in its power to minimize the impact on passengers. The Group airlines Eurowings, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Air Dolomiti and Brussels Airlines are not affected by the strike. Flights to and from Germany that are operated by Group airlines are also not included in the call to strike. Flight operations at the Zurich, Vienna and Brussels hubs will proceed as scheduled. Austrian and SWISS are currently reviewing the possibility of increasing their flight capacity to Germany. Among other things, at least one connection with a Boeing 777 is planned between Vienna and Frankfurt.
Lufthansa plans to operate individual routes tomorrow in spite of the strikes. Among other destinations, flights are planned from Frankfurt to Chicago, Delhi, Haneda, Houston, Miami and Washington. A total of three intercontinental flights are scheduled to depart from Munich tomorrow – to San Francisco, Newark and Charlotte. Other connections, including Hong Kong and Shanghai, are being postponed until Thursday.
Lufthansa has offered mediation to Vereinigung Cockpit on a number of occasions, in order to resolve the wage dispute with the assistance of a neutral third party. VC has consistently rejected the offer. Instead, VC has now announced a strike that will hurt our customers and colleagues most of all.
VC is ignoring the possibility of mediation and is avoiding its responsibilities as a social partner.
